Travel on a journey with Rebecca Evans in “Safe Handling” as she and her son traverse the skies, the streets, and the floors of a hospital where her son needs immediate and important surgical intervention. Skilled as a poet, Rebecca writes eloquently about survival, a mother’s enduring love, a caring surgeon and nurse among a busy, always moving, weary world. “Safe Handling” offers a respite, a calm from our busyness, to reflect and respect what others are going through. Bio from Rebecca’s website: “Rebecca Evans writes the difficult, the heart-full, the guidebooks for survivors. Her work reflects, among many things, fractured relationships. This fracturing influences every subsequent relationship—carrying scars and wounds throughout one’s life. Evans weaves disability, domestic violence, and a fight for survival throughout her narratives, hoping to start conversations, create awareness, compassion, and tolerance. She hopes to inform what it means to navigate this world as a woman,…
Why Write?
“Writing sheds light where there is darkness. It brings people a greater understanding of themselves and each other and the world. It connects them and brings them together. It makes our world warmer and brighter and more hopeful.” —Tiffany Yates Martin, Nov/Dec 2024 Writer’s Digest magazine. More on “Why write:” Writing Resilient: Why Write? Why Write Your Story?
Fish out of water . . . Prompt #808
Photo by David Zinn Prompt: A fish out of water story. Write about a time you felt like a fish out of water, where you didn’t fit in, or you wondered if you belonged. Inspired by Sept/Oct 2024 Writer’s Digest, “Level Up Your Writing Life,” by Sharon Short. #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
Are you an introvert or an extrovert or a combination? Prompt #807
According to Diane Stark, author of “Life of the Party,” a Chicken Soup story in “Be You:” “If your favorite activity is a busy one that involves lots of people, you are an extrovert. If your activity is a quiet, solitary pursuit, you are an introvert. The vast majority of writers are introverts. It’s just how we’re wired.” Diane discovered, “I am a social introvert. It’s someone who is outgoing, but also requires alone time to be healthy.” Prompt: Are you an introvert, an extrovert, or a combination? List your three favorite activities. Are these things you do by yourself or in a small group, or with a lot of other people? When you are tired or stressed, what activity appeals to you most? After being by yourself all day, are you anxious to be around other people? Or, do you need downtime to recover? What energizes you? What restores…
The Emotion Thesaurus
Review by Marlene Cullen. I have heard about this book, read about this book, seen posts about this book for years. So, I bought “The Emotion Thesaurus” by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi. Yes to this book! From the introduction: “What we [recognized] was our own difficulty conveying character emotion in a way that would engage readers. This problem was a big one, because only when the character’s emotions are clearly shared can readers become more involved.” I have often thought about how to “show” body language when writing. As you know, when we interact with others, there is much about body language that conveys our mood, emotions, reactions. How to show these things? The Emotion Thesaurus to our rescue! “We wanted to ensure that our character’s feelings would trigger the reader’s own emotional memories, encouraging empathy that would draw them deeper into the story.” Tips on how to write…
You Can’t Catch Death
Sometimes you read a memoir, put your book away, and get on with your life. “You Can’t Catch Death” by Ianthe Brautigan is not one of those memoirs. Ianthe’s stories about her father and how she was affected by him results in a loving tribute to her conflicted and artistic father, Richard. Ianthe shares details that are painful to read and yet, I read far into the night, needing to know what happened next. I appreciate Ianthe’s gentle handling of difficult and misunderstood subjects: alcoholism and death by one’s own hand. “You Can’t Catch Death” could be a text on how to write a memoir – go deep. Be truthful. Be as honest as you can be. Be authentic. Ianthe excelled on all these levels. Writing Prompt “Watershed moment,” inspired by Ianthe Brautigan from a Writers Forum writing workshop. Thoughts about hurting people’s feelings when writing true stories: Writing has…
Life Span
“Life Span: Impressions of a Lifetime Spent Crossing and Recrossing the Golden Gate Bridge” reviewed by Marlene Cullen. “Life Span” by Molly Giles chronicles numerous trips across Golden Gate Bridge from her earliest memory (1945) to 2023. I’m thinking of the quote “Something happened to someone. So what?” While crossing and re-crossing the span, “Life Span” readers are treated to gorgeous writing, and perhaps inspiration to write their stories. “Life Span” opens with, “If I start to behave like a normal three-year-old girl, my father will let me sit in the front seat of the moving van with him. But I have to crawl out from under the kitchen table, wash my hands and face, and stop snarling. He did not come back from The War to be attacked by a wild tiger.” I like this little girl and I want to know more. In the last chapter, Molly travels…
Nathan Bransford asks . . .
Nathan Bransford recently posted the question, “Has your ambition changed in the past few years?” on his Blog. Hmmm . . . My answer: My goal, since 2003, has been to encourage writers, especially people who want to write but think they can’t. The older I get, the more I am inspired to keep doing what I’ve been doing: Posting inspiration to Just Write! And so, here we are, on The Write Spot Blog asking: Has your ambition changed in the past few years? You can click on Nathan’s Blog post and comment there. Or: Since I no longer have a comments section on my blog (because I couldn’t keep up with deleting spammers), you can answer the question on Marlene Cullen’s Write Spot Facebook Page. Just Write! #justwrite #iamawriteer #iamwriting
We Don’t Talk About That . . . Prompt #806
Armando Garcia-Dávila’s Youtube Talk inspired this prompt: We don’t talk about that . . . Just Write! #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Armando Garcia-Dávila: Writing With Prisoners
Something new on The Write Spot Blog: A video! Some of us hold our cards close to our chest, reluctant to reveal anything personal. Not Garcia-Dávila. In this video, Armando opens his heart to tell us about his experience with prisoners. “I present my experiences volunteering at San Quentin State Penitentiary in Marin County, California. I interacted with inmates over three-day retreats. An unexpected takeaway; there are many decent people, some admirable, that are serving sentences from two years to life. I had an interaction with one particular inmate that was life changing for both of us.” —Armando Garcia-Dávila The video is about 50 minutes long. Scroll down for link to video. Armando opens with a poem “Keeping Quiet,” by Pablo Neruda. Suzanne Murray wrote about “Finding Magic in the Mundane,” referencing Neruda. “I have many favorite poets but, the Nobel prize winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda tops the list in…